- “A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth endures forever.” (Koh 1:4)
“I will live forever though the earth may be consumed”, so thought the Modern Man as he walked down the sidewalk plucking forbidden fruit from his neighbours and throwing the leftovers everywhere. His walk continued pleasant and uninterrupted until the sun began to set. Frightened by the darkness (though without admitting it), the Clever Man invented a candle and called it the sun.
He reasoned to himself, “though there may be no new thing under the sun, perhaps the sun itself can be invented anew.” This was not just the generational forgetting so common in the boardrooms of the multinational corporations that own long-term care homes. This was a novel kind of arrogance. It may indeed be the glow of this novel character that the Clever Man mistook for the sun itself. Either way, he was briefly warmed and saw no need to take shelter against the oncoming night.
Now as it happens, twilight is home to many kind creatures. So an owl perched atop a branch of a nearby tree of heaven stated matter-of-factly, “Night is coming.” Well Modern Man had long ago thrown out the languages of the birds to make room for his own codes so could not make out what the owl was saying.
Just then a house cat on the way out to his nightly hunt meowed at the Man, “vanity of vanities”. Though the Man felt a twinge of insecurity, he chalked this up to indigestion for which he could purchase a cure. A quiet fell over the world as things grew darker, and without knowing quite why, the Modern Man felt the need to fill the quiet with laughter. He became so full of laughter that before he could notice that the night too was temporary, he collapsed and died.
Half a Maven 